


Misery loves company

by Ilmare_Ilse



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Injury, Kidnapping, Mental Breakdown, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilmare_Ilse/pseuds/Ilmare_Ilse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny has a fan. Which is not necessarily a good thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was going to be yet another one of my Coco Puffs stories, but it got a bit longer than expected, and I figured I could post it in two or three chappies, to make the fun last longer...
> 
> If it works as a warning for you, this was inspired by a movie with James Caan called Misery. Now, I've never actually managed to see the whole movie, because it freaks me out far too much, and I've never assumed I come anywhere close to the talent of Stephen King, so don't assume that this is going to be an suspence filled thriller that will keep you on your toes from start to end. It's just going to be a fic written by yours truly.
> 
> Ok, enough talking, on to the fic...

Danny woke up slowly. He was lying on a soft bed, but the room looked unfamiliar. The last thing he could remember was him driving home. Well, he was not sure if he could call his suit in the Hilton home, but he could remember driving there after yet another stressful day at the office.

Ever since Steve's daring rescue of Joe from the hands of Adam Noshimuri and Joe walking away, things had been even more stressful around the office. Steve reckless behavior had increased tenfold, and Danny's patience was running thinner than ever. Today Danny had barely restrained himself from either crushing his knuckles against the nearest wall, or against Steve's cheekbone, since his partner had decided that hanging a suspect over an electrified fence was a proper way to acquire information from said suspect, so after booking the unfortunate fellow and giving his partner the silent treatment, he decided to go home and come back in the morning, hopefully not still feeling the need to punch said partner in the face.

The craziness of the last few days still didn't explain why he found himself waking up on a strange bed, in a strange room, the sounds of the ocean coming through the window. He lifted his head but regretted immediately, as the small movement caused an avalanche of pain to sweep over him. His left arm, shoulder, leg… hell, even his hair hurt, it seemed. He blinked, trying to get the room to stop spinning, but the flowery curtains were really not helping. He finally gave up the fight, letting his head drop back to the pillow and allowing the darkness crowding his vision to take over for a while. Maybe the next time he woke up things would make a little more sense.

* * *

The next time he woke up it was to find a blurry figure sitting on a chair next to his bed. The figure's blonde hair brought back the memory of the only blonde woman to ever sit at his bedside. "Mom?"

He heard a soft chuckle and blinked to bring into focus the owner of the unfamiliar voice. "I'm not old enough to be your mother, Danny…"

He blinked some more and finally managed to bring the blurry figure to focus. It was a petite blonde woman, in her mid thirties. Her long hair framed a round face with dark brown eyes. She was wearing a bright sundress, but by the look of her arms and shoulders, she didn't spend too much time under the sun, if at all. Most of all, she really didn't look like someone from Hawaii. Even more worrying was the fact that he couldn't remember having seen her face before in his life. He tried to gather his thoughts enough to try to figure what the hell was going on. "Who…?" was the best his battered brain could come up with at the moment.

The blonde gave him a sad smile. "My name is Ally."

When no further information was forthcoming, Danny was forced to come up with another question. "Why'm I here?"

Ally smiled sympathetically. "You were in a car accident, so I brought you here so you could recover."

Something about that statement wasn't right, and it took Danny a couple of minutes to figure out what it was. "No hsptal? Prmedcs?" Surely most people knew that's what they were supposed to do if someone was injured in a car crash.

Ally gave a surprised gasp. "Of course not! They would have taken you away! But don't you worry about a thing, Danny. I'll take very good care of you!"

If Danny was not scared before, he surely was now. He figured his best shot was to try to convince this crazy lady to let him go. "Listen Ally, 'm sure you're a lovely person and you'd take great care of me, but wouldn't it be better if we let real doctors take care of me? I'm sure it'll go way faster than here, since they have all of those medicines… That way we could get to know each other better once I'm feeling well enough?" He mustered what he hoped looked like a friendly smile.

Ally giggled, and it was a sound far too creepy to come out of a nice looking lady like the one sitting in front of Danny. "Awww, Danny. Don't be silly! I already know everything about you!" She said with a beaming smile.

Danny would have answered, but things were starting to get fuzzy again. His eyes closed against his will and he let darkness take him.

* * *

He woke up what must have been a good couple of hours later. He could see some sunlight filtering through the windows and hear the sound of traffic from outside. Ally was sitting on the chair next to his bed again, but she had changed her clothes. He took a deep breath, trying not to move too much. "What time'sit?" He asked his host.

Ally smiled, checking her watch. "It's almost 3 pm. I knew you liked to sleep late on Saturdays, but I never thought you'd be such a sleepyhead!"

Danny's blood turned cold, or in this case, colder than it already was. His last conscious memory was from Thursday, and he was not sure if he'd been taken on Thursday or it was sometime later and he just couldn't remember. None of those scenarios were very comforting. Either way, he had lost a whole day.

He took a deep breath, making an effort not to lose the smile that made his cheekbones ache and his gut twist. "You know, I don't think it's fair. You know so much about me, I'd like to know a thing or two about you…"

Ally shifted on her chair, trying to find a more comfortable position. "Alright… I come from a small town in Kentucky. I moved here about 4 years ago and I've hated every single day of it! I work as a waiter in a small restaurant down Merchant's street. I eat my lunch, alone, every day under those trees next to that weird king statue, so I see you and your friends walk by, and sometimes eavesdrop on your conversations." She said, with a shy smile. "That's how I found out that you're a mainlander, and that you hate everything about Hawaii too! You hate pineapple on pizza, you hate the ocean, you hate the heat, that there is no snow here, you hate the locals and their stupid language and in general you hate everything about this god forsaken island! Just like me!" She finished, with far too much glee.

Danny was dreading the answer to his next question. "I guess I was lucky that you were right there when the car accident happened…"

Ally giggled again, causing Danny's skin to crawl. "Nope, no coincidence at all. I figured that if I wanted to drive your attention away from your work, and your ex wife and your little girl, then I'd have to take you some place where I could have you all to myself. Then after coming up with a couple of bad ideas, I decided that the only way would be to bring you here!"

Danny lifted his eyebrows, at least the eyebrow that wasn't part of what felt like a big fat bruise covering the left side of his face. "So you crashed into my car?"

Ally nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! But don't worry, because I looked for a safe way to do it. You see, I rented a truck with a huge bumper on the front, and I crashed into the right side of your car. That way, the airbags would protect you from the worst of the damage and I wouldn't have any trouble getting you out of the car!"

Danny drew a deep sigh, closing his eyes against the pounding headache beating through his skull. He was not surprised to find that he couldn't manage to open them again. He heard Ally moving and when he felt her hand touching his forehead, he recoiled as far as his injured body would allow, which couldn't have been more than a couple of inches. He couldn't stop a couple of tears that spilled from his eyes, or the words that slipped through his mouth. "Wanna go home."

Before consciousness fled again, he heard Ally speaking. "Hush… You are already home…"

* * *

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

Danny woke up a few hours later on the same soft mattress and to the sight of the same awful looking curtains. He was starting to hate the flowery monstrosities. Hell, he'd give anything to wake up on Steve's couch! He'd even settle for waking on his old sofa bed. Any place would be better than this room, in this house, with the crazy blonde bitch lurking somewhere around him.

He tried to take stock of his body, wiggling experimentally those parts that didn't seem to pulse in constant pain. He figured that both his left forearm and shoulder were pretty screwed, and either his left shin, or with his luck his left knee, were busted. That meant that he wouldn't be running out of this god forsaken room anytime soon, so he'd had to find some other way to get out of this mess.

Well, the fact that he wouldn't be running out of here any time soon didn't mean that he couldn't try to at least get out of this awful room.

First things first, he needed to sit up. Using his good elbow, it only took him about 15 minutes to move from his prone position on the center of the bed to a somewhat sitting position by the side of the bed. After that, only 10 more minutes to pull closer the chair Ally was sitting on before, and to start using it to prop himself enough to stand up. About 20 minutes later, he had moved about three feet in the direction of the door and was taking a moment to take a breath.

He heard footsteps coming towards the room, but there really was no use in feigning innocence, so he just stood there, waiting for the crazy woman to come into the room. He didn't even flinch when she opened the door and gave him a surprised look. "Danny! What are you doing over there?"

He really wanted to tell her that he was trying to get as far away from her as he could, but knew it would not help his situation in any way. He settled for a half truth that hopefully would get him out of the room at least. "'m hungry… Need to pee."

Ally jumped and hurried out of the room. "Right! Wait here just a sec!"

Danny feared that the crazy woman would come back with some sort of chamber pot, but fortunately she only brought an office chair which she wheeled closer so Danny could sit. "Here, I'll take you to the bathroom!" She said.

He was too tired and in too much pain to object being wheeled into the bathroom, he only hoped Ally would let him take care of business by himself.

* * *

Fortunately, she remained just outside of the bathroom door, waiting patiently until he came back out. Then she started to wheel him back to the room. "Now I'm going to help you lie down and I'll bring you some yummy soup I made for you, ok?"

Danny put his good foot on the floor, to stop the chair's movement. "Listen Ally, why don't we go to sit on your couch for a while? I'm getting a bit tired of lying down on the bed all day…" He really didn't want to go back to that room if he could avoid it.

Ally looked to the couch, then to the room and then to Danny. "Alright! I'll settle you on the couch and I'll bring some blankets to keep you warm and comfy and then I'll get you some soup! Ok? Ok!" She quickly turned around the chair and rolled it in the direction of the couch.

Danny took the chance to look around Ally's place. He saw that it was a one storey house, with a beach at the backyard, much like Steve's place. There was a back door that led to the beach and a front door that looked at a busy street.

The effort it took him to move from the office chair to the couch made it very clear to him that he was not up to making the trip to either of those doors right now, so he sat down, trying to breathe through the constant pain the movement had caused. He must have drifted off because the next time he blinked Ally was tucking a blanket around his legs and placing a bowl of soup on his lap. He studied the soup, feeling a little nauseous and afraid that the soup could be drugged, or worse. He looked up at Ally. "Don't you hate eating alone?" He said with what he hoped was an inviting smile.

Apparently it worked, because Ally jumped from her seat across from Danny and came back a minute later with a bowl for herself. He waited for her to start eating before he risked taking a small sip. Fortunately, it was not the worst thing he had tasted in his life, so he slowly managed to eat about a quarter of the bowl.

He studied his host for a moment, wondering what had brought such a regular looking lady to do what she was doing right now. He decided to try to know her better, to see if he could reason with her somehow. "So, you said you had come to Hawaii 4 years ago, and that you've hated it ever since. Why did you move here then?"

Ally sighed sadly, unconsciously rubbing her ring finger. "I moved here with my husband."

Danny lifted his eyebrows, but before he could ask anything she started talking again. "We were married about 8 months when he was transferred to Hawaii. My job back there wasn't very stable, so we packed up everything and came here… A year later, he packed up everything again and left me for a woman from work!" She stood up and started pacing restlessly.

Danny couldn't help to sympathize with Ally, even though it would never excuse her behavior. "Why did you stay in Hawaii? Wouldn't it have been better to go back to Kentucky?"

Ally gave a sad chuckle. "With what money? All he left me was 100 bucks and a house with a rent I couldn't afford!"

Ally resumed her pacing. "So I had to find a job I hate, to pay the rent of the house that reminds me of everything that I lost and to stay in an island where I don't know anyone and that everyone hates me!"

She whirled to look at Danny. "But then I found you… You came here following Gracie, and you love her so much that you left everything behind for her! Just like I did! And you hate everything about this island! Just like I do! And you're so beautiful and a great dad, and a good cop and so many great things that I couldn't believe how lucky I was to find you!"

She shook her head going back to her story. "And I was happy to see you from afar, like in the romantic novels where there's an impossible love story, you see? But then I heard that you had almost gone back to New Jersey, with Rachel and Grace, and that Rachel is pregnant! So I couldn't stay away anymore! I had to keep you here, with me!" She looked at Danny pleadingly.

Danny was more than scared with the knowledge that the woman in front of him not only knew more than he was comfortable with about him, but also about Rachel and Grace, and he wouldn't put it pass her to go after them if things didn't work out with him. "Well, you had nothing to worry about, because none of us is going back to Jersey any time soon!" He tried to sound cheerful about it, but he'd had a very long couple of days.

Ally gave one of her creepy giggles and moved to sit next to Danny on the couch. "Of course not, silly! Now that I've made sure you stay with me, nobody is taking you away, ever!"

She moved to hug him, but Danny flinched away, and it made her look at him seriously. "Oh, I'm sorry! You are still a little sore from that crash, aren't you? Maybe I should take you back to bed…"

Danny scooted back on the couch, feeling the need to scream at her that he was not only a little sore from the car crash, he knew he needed a hospital, and he would gladly submit to anything the doctors wanted if it meant leaving this place, but he knew Ally wouldn't understand any of it. If he was certain of something, it was that he didn't want to go back to that room. "No! I'm very comfortable here! I'd really like to stay here, with you…"

Ally seemed to consider the idea, but then shook her head, and taking Danny's left hand, she started pulling him into the rolling chair. "You need to rest, Danny!"

The movement brought a wave of agony to course through Danny's broken arm. He roughly pulled his arm away from her and cradled it carefully against his chest, closing his eyes and trying to breathe through the pain. He opened tear filled eyes to look at the woman in front of him. "Ally, please, let me stay here?"

She stood there, her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her forehead. "You need to go to sleep on the bed Danny…"

She was interrupted from reaching for him again by a knock on her door. They could see the flashing lights of a police car through the window.

She looked nervously at Danny and moved to the door, but not before taking out a gun from a drawer. She gave Danny a nervous look before pasting on her best shy smile, took a deep breath and opened the door…

* * *

TBC...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading, and I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story.
> 
> It's kind of difficult to get into the head of this crazy woman, which should be a good thing, right? But it's taking a bit longer than I anticipated, so, sorry for the delay...
> 
> I hope you leave a comment, whether you like it or not, and I hope to see you around soon!


	3. Chapter 3

Danny couldn't hear the whole conversation, but the male voice at the other side of the door didn't sound familiar. _"-Officer Kauala… Residence of… -olas Cooper?"_

" _I'm afraid there must be a mistake, Nick hasn't lived here in three years. He's my ex husband…"_ He could hear Ally's reply a little better.

The policeman was still trying to get some information from Ally. _"… -rented a black Chevy truck… credit card… this address…"_

Ally started to sound nervous. _"I'm sorry; it's been a long time since I've seen my ex-husband. If he rented that truck, I have no idea what he did with it…"_

The cop didn't sound too convinced. _"… mind if I check your garage?"_

" _Oh! I'm terribly sorry, but I've been doing some remodeling and it's so messy that it would be really embarrassing to show it to you right now! Could you come over tomorrow?"_ And Ally was a really lousy liar.

Danny really hoped that the police officer would notice something was not right with this woman. His next words proved him right. _"-such a hot afternoon, could I ask you for a glass of water?"_

Ally started to sound even more panicked. _"Errr… Sure! Wait here a second! I'll be right back!"_

She rushed back into the house, looking around in desperation and then moved quickly to the kitchen, hoping that if she gave the water to the cop quickly enough, he'll leave and wouldn't bother them anymore. She missed the fact that Officer Kauala had placed his foot so the front door wouldn't close, and was slowly opening it to take a peek inside.

Danny didn't miss the movement, and was holding his breath in wait of the Officer's reaction to seeing him on the couch, in the state he was in. He didn't get an answer since Ally noticed her mistake, and dropping the glass with a squeal, she withdrew the gun from the back of her pants and aimed it at the door.

There was not much that Danny could do under the circumstances, but he needed to warn the officer outside the door. "SHE'S GOT A GUN!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, right before the deafening sound of a gunshot filled the room.

They could hear the sound of a body hitting the ground outside the door, and painful moaning and shuffling. Ally moved towards the door, intending to finish him off, but Danny couldn't let her do that. He painfully stood up from the couch and took a shuffling step to get in her way. "Ally… Stop! Let him go!"

Ally stopped in her tracks, looking one step away from a panic attack. "NO! I have to stop him! He wants to take you away!"

Danny didn't know what this woman was capable of, but he wouldn't have a cop's blood on his hands if he could help it. "Ally, if you kill him, they'll come looking for you… He's still alive, just let him go and they'll leave you alone… Please, let him go…"

Ally turned to him, pointing the gun in his direction, but seemed to buy Danny's reasoning. She nodded, lowering the gun and tucking it in her pocket."Alright, he can go…"

She looked around the room, thinking on what to do next and finally moved towards Danny. She positioned on his injured side, holding his weight up and started pulling him in the direction of the back door. "We need to leave too, sweetheart. In case he comes back!"

The shuffling steps Ally was forcing him to take hurt so much that by the time they crossed the door Danny's world was tilting dangerously and getting dark around the edges. He tried to ask her to stop, but he didn't have much control of his body at the moment, so he couldn't be sure if the sounds that came out of his mouth made any sense.

* * *

Once he noticed that they were moving, albeit slowly, towards the sea shore, Danny decided he had had enough. It was one thing to die from a car crash, or shot by a psycho, but ending up as fish food was not his preferred way to go. His decision made, he stopped holding his own weight with his good leg and allowed himself to fall bonelessly to the sand.

The sudden change of weight brought Ally down as well, but she stood up quickly to take hold of Danny's arms and started pulling him towards the shore again. "Come on! Danny! They'll come!"

Danny shook his good arm away from her, with as much strength as he could muster. "NO! I'm done! I'm not going with you!"

Ally's expression turned thunderous, she looked around desperately and with a shaking hand took the gun out of her pocket, pressing it against Danny's forehead. "Danny, you have to come with me! You're mine! I can't let them have you!"

Danny felt so tired that he wouldn't even be able to swat away a fly at the moment, but he wouldn't go down without a fight. "Then shoot me if that's what you have to do, because there's no way in hell I'm going with you…"

She pressed the gun against the bruised side of Danny's face. "No! You're mine! I can't let them have you! They don't know you like I do!"

Danny closed his eyes against the pain. Not really interested on the sight of the crazy woman in front of him anyways. "Go ahead then, I'm not stopping you…"

He felt Ally's arm tensing, but before she could take the shot, they were interrupted by a voice coming from the direction of the house. "Alice, you don't have to shoot him!"

Danny felt Ally flinching away, and opened his eyes to see her pointing the gun towards two familiar and very welcome figures. "What are you doing in my house?" Ally sounded even more manic, if possible.

Kono and Lori were standing on the Lanai, her vests on, but otherwise unarmed, and her hands up in a non threatening position. "Alice, we are here to check on Danny. We are his friends too…" Lori was trying to establish some kind of connection with Alice, but she didn't know how far gone the other woman already was.

"NO! HE HAS NO FRIENDS HERE! HE'S MINE AND I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIM AWAY!" She screamed, shaking the gun wildly towards them.

Danny could tell that Ally was one step away from starting to shoot to the two women on the lanai, so he had to do something to distract her. "ALLY! Ally! Look at me! I'm not going with them! Look at me! I'm not going with them, ok?"

Apparently the distraction worked too well, because the gun was back to pointing towards his head. "You're coming with me?"

Danny tried to keep eye contact and nodded, mustering up a smile. Unfortunately he was not very convincing, it seemed, because Ally took a step back and moved her other hand to keep the gun steadier. "You're lying…"

Danny really didn't want the sight of the bullet flying towards his head to be the last thing he saw, so he closed his eyes, hoping that it wouldn't hurt too much and that someone would remember to tell Grace that her Danno loved her. Both Kono and Lori's shouts of denial did nothing to reassure him.

He was surprised to notice that instead of the sound of a bullet being shot, he heard the sound of two bodies colliding and falling to the sandy ground, and even more surprised to open his eyes to the sight of Steve, Chin and two other police officers struggling to subdue a kicking, bucking and screaming Ally.

He blinked, thinking that it could only be a figment of his imagination, but the image in front of him didn't change, well, except for the fact that Ally had been successfully cuffed. Suddenly his sight of her was blocked by Kono, who was kneeling in front of him now. "Danny? Are you alright? The paramedics are on the way…"

He looked at Kono confused. Who needed paramedics? Had he missed Ally shooting someone? Damn, his head hurt. "I think I need to sit down…" He said, with a tired sight.

Kono lifted her eyebrows, giving him a concerned look. "Danny, you've been sitting since we got here…"

Danny looked at his legs, stretched in front of him. "Right…"

He started tilting sideways, but his movement was stopped by someone's chest. "It's ok Danno. We've got you now… You'll be alright"

Danny wasn't really listening anymore, focusing instead on the sight of Ally's retreating back. He could hear her screams, even from a distance. "NO! DANNY! YOU'RE MINE! DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOU AWAY!" He shook his head, resting it tiredly against the familiar shoulder. Finally he felt safe. Ally's screams were finally cut off by the closing of the squad car's door, so with a exhausted sigh Danny muttered "Crazy haole bitch" and promptly slumped against his partner's shoulder, unconscious.

* * *

TBC…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, at least Danny is safe now, right?
> 
> Anyway, thank you very much for reading and reviewing this story. I hope you like this new chapter.
> 
> I'll try to wrap this up in just one more chapter, but don't be surprised if I end up writing another coco puff story after tomorrow's episode before that...
> 
> Don't be afraid to leave a note, whether you liked it or not!
> 
> See you around!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not being very specific, and I really am not very informed about the actual symptoms, but I feel I should warn you that this chapter could contain something that could resemble panic attacks, in case that could make anyone uncomfortable.
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Danny woke up slowly. He was lying on a soft bed, but everything felt unfamiliar. The last thing he could remember was… Well, his head felt like cotton wool, but the last thing he could remember was… Ally… Shit! He thought he had gotten away somehow, he was sure of it! But now he was back in the unfamiliar bed. He needed to get up, he needed to leave, but he was tied up somehow, he was in pain and he couldn't seem to catch his breath. He tried to move, tried to sit up but was held down by a strong hand holding his shoulder. "No! Stop! Let me go!" He couldn't be sure, but it sounded more like a whimper than the scream he was aiming for.

He felt a gentle hand on his face and a familiar voice soothing his fears. "Danno… Open your eyes, everything is alright, you just need to open your eyes…"

It took some effort, but he finally managed to open his eyes to the welcome sight of his partner looking down at him. "'teve?"

Steve smiled. "Yeah, Danno, I'm here…"

Danny looked around his room, feeling unbelievable relief at the fact that he was in a hospital room. He took a minute to really look at his friend's face. "You look like shit…"

Steve chuckled, moving his hand from Danny's shoulder down to grip his hand. "Just be thankful that you don't have a mirror right now, Danno."

Danny smiled, but was still feeling uneasy. He started looking around the room, his breaths speeding up. "Steve… Where… where is she?"

Steve's expression hardened. "She's gone Danny, don't worry about her."

Danny shook his head, not believing his partner's words. "No! I wanna know where she is!"

Steve squeezed Danny's hand, trying to keep him focused on something other than the panic threatening to overwhelm the injured man. "Danny! She's really gone! We pushed for a fast hearing, and the judge decided to get her committed. We contacted her sister and flew her back to Kentucky. Sergeant Lukela flew with her to make sure that she's committed in a secured facility."

Danny's eyes filled with tears. "She's really gone? What if she gets out?"

Steve smiled sadly. "If she gets one foot out on the street, I'll know about it and take care of it, Danno… She's never going to get close to you again…"

Danny took a shuddering breath and then another, and another. He pulled his hand away from Steve's grasp and raised it to cover his eyes, not being able to control the shudders running through his body or his hitching breaths.

Steve moved quickly, lowering the railing at the side of Danny's bed, sitting next to his partner and drawing him close, being careful of his injuries. Danny tensed up at first, but after a minute he curled up closer to his partner, accepting his comfort and letting go of the pain and the fear of the last few days.

A few minutes later, once his tears had stopped, Danny took a moment to be surprised at how much his partner's mammal to mammal interactions had improved, stifled a huge yawn, shifted to get to a more comfortable position against said partner and fell asleep, knowing that as long as Steve was around, nothing and no one would harm him.

* * *

The next time he woke up was to the soft sound of his partner's snores. And of course that his smallest twitch would bring an end to said snoring. "Danno? You awake?" Steve croaked.

Danny yawned, stretching as far as his injuries and his current position against his partner would allow. "Yeah… you, my friend, make one bony pillow. You might want to take some tips from Kamekona on his diet…"

He could feel Steve chuckling. "It's all muscle, Danno."

Danny shook his head. "Right… Anyway, you didn't have to stay here, pretending to be a pillow." He still didn't move from his position.

Steve shrugged. "I was comfortable, and I have nowhere else I have to be."

Danny shook his head again. "Control freak…" He looked around the room, noticing that the sun had moved lower. "What time is it anyway?"

Steve moved behind him to look at his watch. "6.35 PM…"

Danny raised his eyebrows. So he had spent most of yet another day sleeping, which brought another question. "And what day is it?" He wasn't really sure that he wanted that answer.

He could feel Steve tensing behind him. "It's Thursday, Danno…"

Thursday, his last conscious memory before waking up at Ally's place was from last Thursday… Had he really been trapped with that crazy woman for a whole week? He could feel the fear creeping in again, but he needed to know. "How long was I gone?"

Steve sighed, unconsciously drawing Danny closer against him. "You went missing last Thursday, around 7.30 PM… We found you on Sunday."

Something wasn't adding up. "I've been sleeping for four days?"

Steve sighed again. "You had to have surgery on your arm, your leg was also broken and your head was pretty banged up. You were in pain and barely conscious and it all added up to get you in a constant state of panic, so the doctors decided to put you to sleep for a couple of days, until you were well enough to make sense of what was going on."

Danny hadn't noticed that he had started to shake until Steve tucked the blankets more tightly around him. "I wasn't in a coma; they didn't poke inside my head, did they?"

Steve rubbed Danny's back comfortingly. "No Danno, you were really scared, and in pain, so they let you sleep it off…"

Danny seemed to find this explanation reasonable, so he calmed down somewhat. He was probably still flying high on the good stuff, because he wasn't feeling much pain at the moment. "Ok…"

Steve still felt tense underneath him though. "Steve? Did something else happen?"

Steve took a deep breath and moved carefully to remove himself from the bed. He sat down in the chair he was initially using and looked up at Danny, a guilty expression on his face. "It's my fault that we took that long to find you, Danny."

Danny lifted his eyebrows and looked at his partner, the partner that looked like he hadn't slept a wink in the week since this whole nightmare started. "And how'd you manage that?" He asked, knowing that Steve needed to get it out of his chest.

Steve lowered his eyes to look at his folded hands. "When you first went missing, I was sure that Wo Fat had to be responsible for it, so we stared looking into all his operation, raided a couple of his more known hideouts and came up with nothing…"

Danny chuckled. "Nothing? Like nothing at all?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Well, we managed to stop a couple of weapon dealing operations, but we had no leads on where you were taken!"

Danny shook his head, a smirk on his face. "Ah… that kind of nothing…"

Steve continued his story, ignoring his friend's sarcasm. "When that didn't get us any leads, we started looking into Fuentes' operations, tried to see if we could get a hold of Matt, to see if he had received any threats related to you…"

Danny wasn't expecting that and couldn't help to feel a flutter of hope. "Did you… Did you find Mattie?"

Steve lifted tired looking eyes to look at his partner. "I'm sorry, Danno… We lost his trace somewhere near Singapore…"

Danny nodded, swallowing back his disappointment. "So, what happened once you figured out that Fuentes was not the one that had taken me?"

Steve sighed, passing his hand down his face. "By that time it was Saturday already, and Charlie had brought up an analysis of some traces of paint found on the Camaro… It was just some regular paint used for sports bumpers. We looked up all the registered cars that could have that kind of paint and narrowed the search to those capable of doing the kind of damage that the Camaro sustained…" He looked up to see Danny's face, and sure enough his injured partner had paled at the knowledge that his beloved car was probably just a mess of broken and twisted metal right now. He reached out to squeeze his partner's hand. "Don't worry about it Danno, we'll take care of it…"

Danny didn't look convinced, but motioned at Steve to continue his story. "The list was narrowed down to about 35 trucks, but it was still too long, so we requested the assistance of HPD to check on the less likely suspects. One of them was a young woman from Kentucky who had used her husband's credit card to rent a large Chevy truck for the weekend…"

Danny suddenly remembered Ally shooting the cop outside her door and could hear him falling all over again. He gasped, squeezing Steve's hand. "There was a cop! She shot him! Is he… Is he dead?"

Steve patted Danny's hand comfortingly. "He's alright Danno, she got him on the leg, but he managed to call for assistance and let us know that she had someone else inside the house. He had to spend a night in the hospital, but he was released the following day and is recovering without any complications… He's alright Danny…"

Danny closed his eyes in relief, drawing a deep sigh. He opened his eyes again to study the defeated figure of his partner. "Why didn't you follow the evidence from the crime scene at first?" He consciously tried not to make it sound as an accusation.

Steve looked up at Danny, feeling guilty anyway. "The traces of paint inittially pointed to about 150 possible suspects, I thought it would take too long to go through all of them and that since we had two likely suspects, that those would be our best bets…"

Danny sighed. "Well, let me tell you babe that if our roles had been reversed, I probably would have done the same as you did… If someone had taken you and all we had was some paint scrapings, then I would have definitely gone knocking at Wo Fat's door first…" He said, squeezing Steve's hand.

Steve quirked his eyebrows. "So you're not appalled at my lousy detective work?" He said, not entirely joking.

Danny chuckled. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you had the pleasure of tackling that woman to the ground. Which means that you, in fact, managed to find the needle in the haystack. Unless all of this is just a figment of my imagination…" Danny's eyes darting nervously around the room showed that he was not entirely joking either.

Steve smiled. "No Danno, I really had the pleasure of tackling that crazy bitch to the ground." He finished, gently patting his friend on his good shoulder.

Danny nodded, breathing a relieved sigh, immediately followed by a yawn. Steve stood up and started tucking him in, but Danny was having none of that. "Babe, seriously, you can't stay here all night… You look like shit. Sleep on your own bed, please?"

Steve smiled reassuringly at his friend. "Don't worry, Danno. Chin is coming over in an hour and I'll go home then, ok?"

Danny rolled his eyes, issuing a token protest. "I don't need a babysitter…"

Steve grew serious. "Maybe it's us who need to make sure that you're safe, Danno…"

Danny nodded, blinking tiredly. "Alright, but the next time I wake up I don't want to see you ugly face in this room, are we clear?"

Steve gave him one of his goofy grins. "Cristal, Danno…"

Danny finally allowed his eyes to close, feeling how Steve tucked the blankets around his shoulders. The knowledge that his team would be watching over him making him feel safe enough to sleep.

* * *

TBC…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you very much for reading, and for your reviews.
> 
> As usual, this is getting longer than expected, but it should be done in one more chapter, hopefully.
> 
> Feel free to drop a line, and I'll see you around!
> 
> BTW, I've been looking for some H/C fic for Danno after last night's episode, but it seems that I'll have to do it myself, so don't be surprised if I get a bit distracted...


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much to all of those reading…
> 
> As in the previous chapter, this chapter could be a bit uncomfortable for some, since it deals with Danny just starting his recovery from this scary situation, so be warned in advance.

Danny woke up suddenly. The feeling of a soft unfamiliar bed bringing him back to Ally's room, injured, in pain and locked up against his will. He tried to sit up, opening his eyes to a dark, blurry room. His movements were stopped by a strong hand on his shoulder and a familiar voice calmed his fears. "Calm down, Danny… You're alright…"

He slumped back in the bed, blinking to bring the familiar face into focus. "Chin? Wha' you doing here?"

Chin sat down on a chair next to Danny's bed. "Just checking out on you, brah… come on, it's almost 4… Get some more sleep…"

Danny frowned. "You don't have to stay… You should go home…"

Chin smiled at his injured friend. "Don't worry brah. Let us watch over you for a while, we'll back off once you're better, ok? Now get some rest…"

Danny sighed, shifting until he found a more comfortable position. "I don't know why I even bother… Thanks babe…" He said, before closing his eyes again.

* * *

Some time later, Danny roused enough to hear someone coming into the room. He could hear them talking to Chin, but he was too tired to open his eyes.

"-check his BP and temperature…"

"- try not to startle him, please…"

Danny could hear someone moving to the side of his bed, he heard them moving about and what sounded like writing on a piece of paper, and let himself drift back to sleep, figuring that it must be a nurse.

He was startled awake a minute later, when he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. He jumped, opening his eyes to find the source of his discomfort. When the dim lighting of the room showed him a blurry blond figure standing next to his bed, all rational thought left him in a rush. "NO! STAY AWAY!" He screamed, using his good arm to push the blond figure away.

Danny scrambled away from the blond figure that was coming back to his side. He tried to kick the figure away, but he could barely lift his casted left foot, so he tried to crawl away instead.

Another figure came from Danny's right, and he threw a punch in that direction, not really listening to the jumbled words he could hear them speaking.

Using the few seconds of distraction, he crawled away, falling to the ground once he reached the edge of the bed. He didn't register the pain of the ripped IVs on his arm, or from the rough handling of his broken shoulder and leg, he just needed to get away from her, he needed to escape.

He tried to stand, but between his broken bones, his scrambled brain and the panic currently consuming him, he was lucky to be able to crawl backwards until he collided with a wall.

He looked up and they were coming, she was coming back to bring him to her house, she was here and he would never get away from her. She reached out but he fought them off with all he had. "NO! STAY THE FUCK AWAY! DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Now more people were coming closer, but he couldn't see their faces, he couldn't breathe, he could barely scream. She was here, he needed to get away but he couldn't run. He needed to run.

Suddenly one of the figures moved forward and took hold of his good arm, pinning him against the wall. He tried to kick them away, but they had pinned his legs too. "NO! DON'T! STOP!"

Someone kept talking to him, one of those holding him down. He knew that voice, and tried to make sense of what they were saying. He focused on the face, and realized that Chin was here, he could help him. "CHIN! HELP ME! WE NEED TO LEAVE! DON'T LET HER COME! PLEASE!" He screamed, latching his hand on his friend's arm and trying to curl closer to the only protection he had.

At least Chin got part of the message, because he was shielding him from the other people in the room, but he was making no move to get him out of there. Instead he kept speaking to him in a calm and soft tone, which did nothing to reassure Danny. He made the effort to listen to what his friend was saying, and finally was able to understand the soft words that he kept repeating. "Danny, calm down, you're safe. You need to calm down…"

Danny shook his head frantically, trying to make Chin see the danger they were in. "She's here Chin! Please help me! We need to leave!"

Chin just wouldn't listen, trying to calm his down with his soft words and holding him still. "Danny, she's not here. I promise that you are safe, Danny."

Another figure kneeled next to them, using the same soft tone of voice as Chin. "Danny, I'm Doctor Owen. I'm going to give you something to help you calm down a bit, alright?"

He shook his head, trying to move closer to Chin, hoping he would protect him. "No… I don't want it…"

The doctor didn't listen to Danny, directing two other people to take his leg so that he could inject him with the drugs. Danny tried to fight them off, but there were too many of them. "NO! Please! Need to get out!"

Danny squeezed Chin's hand weakly, trying to fight off the effect of the drugs. "Chin… Please, help me!"

Chin rubbed his arm comfortingly and kept repeating the same comforting words over and over again. "You're safe, Danny, everything is gonna be alright…"

Danny knew it was a lie, and as sleep finally claimed him, he knew that _she_ would be there the next time he awoke.

* * *

He woke up slowly, feeling warm and safe. He couldn't remember where he was, and in any case, he really didn't care, since he was really comfortable.

The only strange thing was his pillow, which, come to think about it, really didn't feel like a pillow at all. For once, pillows didn't come with a heartbeat or breath sounds. They also didn't move to draw you closer and rub your back when you shifted a bit.

"Danno, are you awake?" Well, that answered the question about the nature of Danny's pillow.

Danny sighed, not bothering to open his eyes. "Didn't I tell you to go home and sleep?" He didn't remember much of the last time he was awake, but he remembered sending Steve home.

He could hear Steve giving a relieved sigh and chuckling. "I went home and slept, Danno…"

Danny opened his eyes and looked up at his partner. "Sure you did. Did you come back here before or after sunrise? I guess I should be thankful that you at least took one of your 3 minute showers…"

Before Steve could reply, Chin's voice came from the chair next to Danny's bed. "I called him, Danny…"

Danny looked up to Chin and all the events from the previous night came back to him. He pushed away from Steve, looking around the room worriedly. The sight of restrains attached to the railing of his bed made him try to sit up. "Shit! Wha… What'd I do?" He asked his friends, while trying not to panic.

Steve moved quickly, pushing Danny back down on the bed. "It's alright, Danno, you did nothing wrong…"

Danny gave his partner an 'are you kidding me?' look. "I… I thought _she_ was here. I kicked and screamed at her, and I may have been in the middle of an embarrassing tantrum, but I'm pretty sure I hit flesh, Steven! Now I want to know what did I do!"

Chin stood up and moved to Danny's side. "A nurse came in and told me she would check your bandages, temperature and BP. I expressly asked her not to do anything that might startle you, but she must have not listened, because the next thing I know you had pushed her away, were falling off the bed and had started a painful shuffle to the nearest wall. You were really frightened and wouldn't let anyone come near you. After a few minutes you recognized me and jumped at me, asking me to take you away…" He said, looking down at his hands.

"I tried to calm you down, but it wasn't working. By then a doctor came into the room with some sedatives. He tried to explain to you what he was doing, but you were too scared to understand. We had to hold you down while he injected you… I stayed with you on the ground until you fell asleep and then, after we moved you back to the bed, I called Steve." Chin said, finally lifting his eyes to look at Danny.

They saw Danny looking at the restrains. "By the time I had gotten here, they had already cleaned you up and made sure you were not seriously hurt, but they wanted to keep you in those. We told them they were not necessary, but they said that they'll decide once you woke up, if you were distressed and wanted to bolt again, then they'd have to use them." Steve said, in a soft voice.

Danny took a deep breath, passing a trembling hand down his face. "Alright, you guys should go…"

He got a "What?" in stereo, from the two other men in the room.

Danny didn't lift his eyes to look at them, but would not be persuaded by the other men's outbursts. "You need to go. Go home and get some rest. I'll be alright… Just… Just tell a nurse to come and tie these things up… That way I won't hurt anyone…" He said, looking at the restrains, his voice cracking at the end.

Before Chin could protest again, Steve was talking to him. "Chin, could you go downstairs to the cafeteria and tell Rachel to take Gracie back home? Tell her that Danny doesn't want to see her…"

Danny's protest was loud and immediate. "Wait, what? What the hell is the matter with you! You're not telling her anything of the sort!"

Steve turned to Danny, a surprised expression on his face. "I thought you wanted to be left alone, Danny…"

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, not really knowing what to do. "No… I… Damn… Not if it was Gracie… I just… No, you're right… She can't come…" He said, trying to control his breathing.

Steve regained his seat at the side of his friend's bed and squeezed Danny's arm to catch his attention. "Danny… If this is about you possibly hurting Gracie, you know better than no one that that's something you'd be incapable of doing, so what is it? Why don't you want her to come up?"

Danny finally uncovered his face and looked at Steve. "Look at me, Steve…" He said, motioning at his bandaged arm and at all the cables, tubes and machines currently attached to him. "I'm… I'm not really in a good place right now, so there's no way to know whether I could hurt her or not… and eve if I don't… I… I can't protect her like this… "

Steve moved to squeeze his friend's shoulder. "Well, what if you let us protect you two for a while? Make sure that nothing happens to Grace and to you?"

Danny looked from Steve's to Chin's faces, seeing nothing but support and understanding, and knew not for the first time that they would always do their best to keep Grace safe, and him as well. His decision made, he nodded. "Alright, tell Gracie that her Danno is waiting for her… and… you guys can stay too… if you want to…"

Steve smiled, while Chin left the room in search for Danno's monkey. "We'd love to, brah."

* * *

Rachel and Grace came into the room 10 minutes later. The minute Grace saw her dad she rushed to his side. "Danno!"

She was barely stopped from leaping over the bed by Steve's gentle hand. "Easy Gracie. Danno needs gentle care, ok?" He said, while he picked her up and placed her gently next to her dad on the bed.

Grace just sat there, looking at her dad, trying to find a way to give him a hug without getting in the way of the bandages, cables and machines attached to him. Danny made the decision for her, drawing her close against his side. "Hey Monkey…" He said, in a choked up voice.

"Danno? Mom said that you were lost, but that Uncles Steve and Chin and Aunties Kono and Lori were looking for you… How'd you get lost? I missed you! I don't want you to get lost again, ok?" Gracie asked, curling closer to her dad.

Danny squeezed his little girl as tightly as he could manage without causing either of them pain. "I'm sorry Monkey. A lady wanted me to stay over at her place, but she was not very nice and she didn't want to let me leave, but your aunts and uncles were looking for me and found me, you see?"

Grace looked at the bandages covering her Danno's body. "She hit you too? She's really mean! She shouldn't have made you stay at her house if you didn't want to!"

Danny shook his head. "No, Monkey. I was in a car accident before she took me to her place. I'm sure she knows by now that she shouldn't do that anymore." He said, looking at Steve, hoping he wouldn't say anything to contradict his story.

Fortunately, Steve didn't seem inclined to make any comments, and was in fact prevented from doing anything by Rachel's voice. "Grace, would you like to give your father the things we brought for him?" She said, looking at her daughter. She turned to Danny with a smile. "I'm glad you're looking better, Danny…"

Grace jumped from the bed, moving to take a bag from her mom. "Danno! We brought you a 'care package'!" She said, looking for her mom's confirmation.

Danny smiled at his ex wife and looked at his daughter, his mood lifting instantly at hearing her excitement. "A care package? And what's in that care package of yours?"

Grace picked up the bag and placed it at the foot of Danny's bed. "Well, Uncle Steve told my mom that you were really missing your bed, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring you at least your pillow, so you wouldn't miss it so much…" She said, taking his old and battered pillow from the bag and passing it to Steve. "Uncle Steve, could you help Danno to put his pillow under his head?"

Danny chuckled, allowing Steve to place the pillow. If he was being honest to himself, he had been having a lot of trouble every time he woke up, thinking he was back at Ally's, so maybe his Monkey's idea was not too bad after all.

Grace continued revealing her care package. "And last time you were stuck in here you said that you hated the hospital food, so I asked Kamekona if he could make you that yummy chicken soup that he sent the last time I had the flu, so he sent this for you!" she said, taking a plastic container with some liquid inside. "He said to heat it before you eat it, though or it would look and taste icky…"

Danny smiled, nodding his head. "Duly noted, Monkey.,,"

Gracie still had more things to give to her Danno. "And Mommy said that you'd have to stay here for a few days, and that you'd been alone at that nasty lady's place, and since I don't like to feel lonely at night, I brought you someone to keep you company…" She finished, taking out of the bag an old, battered and torn blue bunny.

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Little Cottontail? I didn't know you still had him Monkey…"

Gracie nodded, moving to place the bunny next to her dad. "Yeah, I just don't sleep with him anymore, 'cause I didn't want him to come apart… But he can sleep with you, because you don't move so much and you'll take good care of him!" She said, settling again next to her dad and cuddling close.

Danny leaned forward and kissed his girl's forehead. "Thank you, Monkey…"

He really had a lot to thank her, especially since her sole presence helped Danny to restore at least part of his sanity. He drew her close, fighting the sleep that wanted to take over yet again.

Apparently both Steve and Grace noticed, because Danny's partner pulled at his blankets to tuck them tightly around him and Grace squeezed him gently, leaning to whisper in his ear. "Go to sleep, Danno… Me and Uncle Steve will look after you…"

Danny decided to listen to his little girl's advice, knowing that both Steve and Chin were around and that they'd keep their promise of keeping Gracie safe. Finally able to breathe easily, he decided that getting some sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea after all…

* * *

TBC...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading!
> 
> I know I keep saying this, but the next chapter should be the last one… unless it takes a life of its own, like this one did.
> 
> Feel free to leave a note, whether you liked it or not!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this is in fact the last chapter. There's still reference of Danny's recovery from his kidnapping. So tread with caution if it could make you uncomfortable.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it...

A month later, Danny was sitting on a chair at the back of Steve's house, his bare feet burrowed in the sand.

Considering the peaceful landscape, one would expect Danny to be there enjoying the beautiful view. Instead, his restlessness and agitated movements showed a less than peaceful picture.

* * *

It had been two weeks since he had been released from the hospital, and he had found himself having to jump from one of his friend's home to another.

The first couple of days he had accepted Rachel's invitation to stay at her and Stan's place. He hadn't been given much of a choice, since everyone had agreed that sleeping under the same roof as Grace would help him to recover. None of them counted on him waking terrified every morning, not knowing where he was and not being able to calm down unless either Rachel or Stan intervened, which made it awkward, to say the least. The worst part was that he was starting to scare Grace, so after only three days he decided to leave.

Of course his Ohana wouldn't just let him go back to his suite at the Hilton, especially since the traitors had taken his stuff from the room and moved it all to McGarrett's place one week after he had been found. He had also shared with some of them that since Ally's place was next to the beach, he was a bit scared to sleep with the sound of the ocean in the background, so they had all agreed that crashing at Chin and Malia's place would be the best choice.

Three days later, he was leaving the Kelly's home, after waking up straddling Chin, just short of crushing his friend's head against the ground.

It took a lot of effort, but Kono finally convinced him to crash at her place. It involved a promise from Kono to stay at a safe distance from Danny if he was in the middle of a nightmare. He would not be able to live with himself if anyone else was hurt because of this. Unfortunately it also meant that Danny was avoiding sleep like the plague, convinced that he would hurt his friend if she found him having a nightmare.

Steve had remained silent through the whole process, supporting all of Danny's decisions, but when he visited him at Kono's place and found him jumpy, exhausted and in a generally awful mood, he decided enough was enough. Packing all of Danny's things, he thanked Kono and hauling Danny to his truck, he drove him to his place. By that time, Danny was far too tired to argue, so he just went along with it.

* * *

Of course that the change didn't instantly make everything better. Danny was still lucky to get more than 2 uninterrupted hours of sleep every time he managed to drift off; he refused to take any pills to help him with that, since he would wake up groggy and frightened. His therapist had said that it would take time for things to go back to normal, that he needed to give himself time to recover, and that he shouldn't punish himself for the things that he couldn't or wouldn't feel comfortable doing for now. The problem was that those small things that he didn't feel comfortable doing right now included sleeping, going out the door, watching and hearing the ocean, and holding his service weapon.

At least Danny knew that Steve was better at avoiding getting hit by a flailing arm or leg, or if he did get hit, the most injured would undoubtedly end up being Danny. But if he was being honest with himself, even with the general unpleasantness that was his life, it was a little bit less unbearable at Casa McGarrett.

* * *

That's how Steve found him sitting on a chair, staring at the ocean, his feet burrowed in the sand. By now the only evidence of his kidnapping was the sling over his shoulder, since both his broken arm and leg had healed enough to allow him to remove the casts.

Steve had done him the courtesy of allowing Danny some time for himself, knowing that lately it was a scarce commodity for his friend, either because of Danny's own sense of helplessness or because of his friends' over protectiveness.

He made sure to alert Danny of his presence, making some noise and approaching slowly. "Hey Danno, you alright?"

Danny glared at him sideways. "I'm peachy! Never been better!" He snapped, not taking his eyes off the shoreline.

Steve sat down on the chair next to the one his partner was occupying. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Danny gave a mirthless laugh. "Talk about it? That's all my psycho-doctor says! Talk about it, Danny! How does that take you feel, Danny!" He yelled, standing up. "I'm tired of talking about it! I'm tired of feeling scared all the time! I'm tired of falling asleep, only to see her face, only to find myself back in that God forsaken room!" He continued to yell, turning around to face Steve. "I'm tired of feeling tired… I'm tired, Steven…" He finished in a defeated whisper.

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Danny interrupted him. "I swear to God, Steven, if you tell me to give it more time, I'll take the gun you keep under your pillow and I'll shoot you with it!"

Steve sighed. "Well, you do have to… do what you said… Besides, your shrink did tell you to try to start doing stuff, to take a walk around the block, a dip in the ocean? You've been here for a week, and this is the first time I see you coming outside…"

Danny was standing with his back to the water, looking down at his hands. "It may have escaped your attention, but… The idea of going out the door is not very appealing to me right now… And the sound of this damn ocean behind me makes my skin crawl, so… I… I'm taking my time to do all that stuff my psycho-doc wants me to do, ok?"

Steve studied his partner for a few minutes and then took a deep breath and started talking. "So, what do you want to do? Maybe going back to Jersey would be a good idea?"

Danny looked up at him, an angry expression on his face. "Are you nuts? I'll be dead before I leave my baby girl alone in this piece of rock in the middle of the ocean!"

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Really? You're going with that? That's interesting, because I'm really curious about how you plan on protecting Grace from my living room!"

Danny opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, a pissed off look coming over his face. "You know what? You have no fucking clue what's it like…"

Steve stood up, giving a sarcastic chuckle. "I don't have a clue? Are you serious? Let me tell you, Danno. I've been in traumatic situations, where I've been injured and I've had to go through stuff like you are going through right now. It's true that it was nothing as personal as you and that I was trained for it… I'm aware of that, but what I do know and what you're pretending to ignore is that there's nothing worse than staying locked up, hiding from it all! And that's exactly what you're doing!"

Danny circled his partner, feeling his hackles rising. "You've no idea what you're talking about! I bet you Super SEAL would be already back at work, throwing grenades and shooting people left and right if it had happened to you! Well, excuse me if I need a little bit more time!"

Steve shook his head, growing angry himself. "I never said you should be back at work already! I'm just saying that you should be making more efforts to get better! That maybe you shouldn't be such a coward…"

Steve knew he had gone too far trying to snap his partner out of it when said partner's face started to turn a furious shade of red and the next thing he knew he was being tackled and unceremoniously thrown into the water nearby.

What followed was a succession of mutual tackles, dunks, rolls in the sand, and general attempts to drown each other, which ended up with the two partners sitting down in the shallow water, soaking wet, covered in sand, coughing up part of said water and laughing their asses off between the coughs.

Steve recovered first and looked at his disheveled partner with a smile. "Well, at least you took that 'dip in the ocean' that your doc suggested."

Danny glared at him half heartedly. "He never said I should do it in my clothes…" He said, looking down at himself. He shifted a bit, taking his cell phone from his pocket and groaned at the sight of the dripping device. "He never said anything about ruining my phone either."

Steve winced, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I was just the innocent bystander that got thrown into the ocean…" He noticed his friend's forlorn expression and reached out to pat his shoulder. "Well, what do you say if we go inside, you take a nap and after that we go get you a new one?"

Danno looked at the waves lapping at his feet, surprised to realize that he had being too busy wrestling with his friend to remember the fear that usually the sound and sight of the ocean brought on. He took a deep breath and looked at his partner uncertainly. "Would… would you go with me?"

Steve squeezed his friend's shoulder comfortingly. "Wherever you want to go, I'll be there, Danno."

Danny moved to stand up and with Steve's help they started moving back into the house. "We may have to get a new sling while we are at it…" He said, eyeing the torn straps of his old sling.

Steve chuckled. "I'm sure we could stop on the way…"

* * *

Two months later, they were in the getting ready to raid a warehouse where a group of weapon dealers and human traffickers were hiding. Steve was pointing at a blueprint of the building, assigning positions both to his team and to the SWAT team that had been invited to participate in the operation. "Alright Chin, you, Kali and Jones are going through the back. Watch out for the offices around there, some of them could seek shelter in there. Kono, Lori and Pao, you are coming in through the emergency door in the second floor. See if you can cover us from there. Danny, you take Smith, Lani and Kapu and come in through the side door. Me and Poku are going through the front."

Danny lifted his eyebrows but didn't comment. It was only a month since he had been allowed to go back to desk duty, and just two weeks since his shrink authorized him to full active duty. He also knew that his team had been affected by what happened too, so he expected some over protectiveness from them for a while.

Everyone took their positions and on Steve's word moved into the warehouse. Fortunately, it all went smoothly. The surprise factor meant that the perps didn't oppose much resistance, and in a few minutes most of them were being cuffed.

Of course one of them would try to make a run for it, and in this case it was a young, blonde woman that somehow managed to slip by three SWAT officers and slip out the back door.

Looking around, Danny noticed that he was the only one not currently trying to restrain a suspect, so with a loud "I'm on it!" he sprinted after the woman. He didn't hear his team's calls to stop, to wait, and by the time they were free to follow, Danny was out of sight.

* * *

Five minutes later, they found them. The blonde woman was handcuffed to a dumpster, screaming her throat out and squirming to release her hands from the cuffs. Most concerning was the sight of Danny, doubled over and panting for breath.

Steve and Kono rushed to their friend, while Chin and Lori moved cautiously to the flailing woman. "Hey Danno, you ok?"

Danny didn't speak up, just managing to shake his head.

Steve shared a concerned look with Kono. He reached out, putting a comforting hand on Danny's shoulder. "Hey, Danno… It's alright… You're alright…"

Danny lifted his head to glare at his partner. "Alright? I'm not alright, you Neanderthal! She _kicked me_!" He said, in a pained groan.

Kono looked from Steve to Danny and with a chuckle moved to help the others control the angry blonde.

Steve lifted his eyebrows, not really sure of what was going on. "She kicked you?" He said, looking at his friend's legs and not seeing anything wrong with them.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yes, Steven… She _kicked_ me…" He said, moving his eyes downward.

Steve finally understood his friend's problem and winced in sympathy. "Oh! Owww… That's too bad, Danno… You just… Need any ice or something?" He said, patting Danny's back.

Danny straightened out, wincing a bit himself, but shook his head. "Nah… I'm good…" He took a good look at his friend's face. "You were scared, weren't you?" He said with a chuckle.

Steve blushed and wouldn't look at his friend. "I was not… Well… Maybe I was just a little bit concerned…" He said sheepishly.

Danny slung an arm around Steve's shoulder. "It's nice to know you care, you goof…"

Steve smiled, patting his friend's back. "Come on, Danno… the SWAT guys are waiting for you with the suspects… "

Danny lifted his eyebrows. "What for?" He asked, confused.

"So you can Book'em, Danno…" Steve said with a smirk.

* * *

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I'm done!
> 
> First of all, in case that Steve's approach at helping Danny is exactly the wrong thing to do to someone in that situation, I apologize, since I've zero knowledge on the subject and I just needed Danny to snap out of it, in order to move on with the story... I hope it won't offend anyone.
> 
> Second, I want to thank everyone that read and/or reviewed this story. I hope the end is not dissapointing.
> 
> Can I say that I can't wait for tomorrow's episode? And I hope to see plenty of fic about it afterwards?
> 
> Anyways... I hope to see you around!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, First of all, thank you so much for reading. I'd love it if you left a line or two, whether you liked it or not.
> 
> I feel I should point out that even though Danny is such a yummy human specimen, I don't feel that kidnapping him in order to keep him for myself is a good or acceptable behavior and I'm certainly not encouraging anyone to try it at home... Just saying... ;-)
> 
> That said, I hope to see you around soon!


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